Notable Lesbians
This week’s Notable Lesbian is:
Betty Berzon
January 18, 1928 0 January 24, 2006
Betty Berzon was an American author and psychotherapist known for her work with the gay and lesbian communities. 
She was among the first psychotherapists to assist gay and lesbian clients. After coming out as a lesbian in 1968, she began providing therapy to gays and lesbians, and in 1971, she organized the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Community Services Center as well as an organization of gays and lesbians within the American Psychiatric Association, which declassified homosexuality as a mental illness two years later. Berzon was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1986. She was treated by mastectomy and her cancer remained in remission for many years. The cancer returned in 2001, and Berzon died on January 24, 2006. She is survived by Teresa DeCrescenzo, the president of Gay and Lesbian Adolescent Social Services, whom Berzon met in 1973 and married during a mass wedding ceremony at the 1993 March on Washington.
Interesting tid bit:
Berzon’s books included Positively Gay (1979), Permanent Partners (1988), and The Intimacy Dance (1996). Berzon also wrote a personal memoir, Surviving Madness, a Therapist’s Own Story (2002) in which she discussed her previous suicide attempt and institutionalization. The book received a Lambda Literary Award for excellence in gay and lesbian writing. For many years, she wrote an advice column on gay relationships for PlanetOut.
Read the Gay.com obituary
If you have a suggestion for a Notable Lesbian, e-maill me at lyndsey.darcangelo@451press.net or use the contact form above and I’ll highlight her in an upcoming post.
Betty Berzon, Theresa DeCrescenzo, breast cancer, positively gay, permanent partners, the intimacy dance, lamda literary award, gay and lesbian adolescent social services
August 9th, 2007 at 6:07 pm
Thanks for posting Betty Berzon. I had heard of her but did not know much.